


Coming Home

by rosyserenity



Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Estrangement, Familial Relationships, Gen, One Shot, Pre-Crisis, Running Away, Siblngs, somewhat AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-09
Updated: 2020-07-09
Packaged: 2021-03-05 04:28:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25158517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rosyserenity/pseuds/rosyserenity
Summary: Hartley goes back for his sister after nearly three years of estrangement enforced by their parents.
Relationships: Hartley Rathaway & Jerrie Rathaway
Kudos: 16





	Coming Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in the pre-Flashback, pre-Crisis timeline, a little bit after the events of The Sound and the Fury/Crazy For You and somewhat of an AU. Might make this part of a series where both Rathaways adjust to their new life/engage in some supervillainy/then eventually deal their traumas & reform, but we'll see! For now, here's the super gushy reunion of my favorite Disaster Siblings. Enjoy! :)

It was easy to lose track of time and space in the halls of the enormous Rathaway mansion. There were so many endless hallways, so many unused, locked up rooms and specks of dust floating in the cracks of light. It was all very fascinating and romantic to Jerrie when she was about seven or eight, but at twelve, she felt its hollowness, its emptiness in her bones. Most of it had to do with the profound silence left by someone who had once lived there. 

She crept back to her room on her bare toes, humming softly to herself. In her great-grandmother’s yellowing white lace dress (which she treasured above all the repetitive rows of sweaters, skirts, and collared dresses in her wardrobe), she felt like a ghost. That’s what she was now, in a sense. There was an unrest in her that went beyond her sleeplessness, the need to get up and wander the house in the middle of the night. 

She could feel more intensely than she ever had, see aspects of her life in a new light, and hear the slightest sounds amplified. Footsteps. She turned her head, but there was no one there -- only the expanse of dark. Perhaps one of her parents or the live-ins had gotten up, but she knew their steps all too well. There was a strange buzzing sound, too, not unlike the one she sometimes emitted during the strange episodes she’d begun to have. 

She swallowed, frozen in fear as the sounds drew closer and closer to her until there was a green glow and a very familiar shadow on the carpet. She gasped. 

“Been a while, little sis. Did you miss me?” 

Her heart stopped and tears formed in her eyes. Before she knew it, she turned around and leapt into the figure’s arms, nearly knocking him to the ground. 

“Oof,” Hartley groaned as he struggled to carry her, but eventually managed and returned her embrace. “You’re getting big…for an elf.” He smiled in that playful, boyish way she missed so much and ruffled her hair before gently setting her down. 

Jerrie was reeling; shaken by the unreality of it all. “I thought…I thought I’d never see you again.” 

“Believe me, Jerrie, it’ll take a lot more than _them_ to keep me away. Now, follow me and do exactly as I say.” 

❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦

Hartley himself could barely believe he was standing in his sister’s room after nearly three years, but there was little in his life that surprised him anymore. He knew that after settling his score with Wells and the Flash, he had to stop making excuses for his parents, stop trying to make amends with them, stop holding back from his resentment, and slowly but surely take back what was rightfully his. 

He hadn’t forgotten Jerrie. Hardly a day passed that he didn’t remember her smile, her laugh, the way the light in her eyes would dull when Mom or Dad would enter the room to remind her to make herself smaller, and her cries when she chased the car he was ferried away into the unknown in after he made the mistake of coming out to their parents. It was only a matter of time before she too would make a mistake and be tossed away like garbage, though she had always known in one way or another what their parents were capable of when crossed. Hartley sometimes wondered if they knew what he was capable of when crossed. 

He smiled to himself and watched her carefully and quietly rummage through her things – a few clothes, her plush velvet squid, Mariana, and her beloved books they’d spend hours poring over together when she was smaller and he was just realizing how much he could love the strange, silly, and somehow so smart new baby in the house. 

“There’s more I need to get from the library,” Jerrie whispered, gathering her already overstuffed backpack together. “Will we have time?” 

Hartley shook his head. “No, but I can replace whatever you need me to.” 

Jerrie gave him a weak smile, but looked down with that sad little puppy dog face he always had to fight so hard to resist. 

He sighed exasperatedly. “Look, trust me, you won’t have to worry about books where we’re going. Now, _please_ , let’s go. You have plenty to carry already.” He glared at her backpack. 

The girl relented and put her stubby hand into his. She seemed unphased by the weaponized gauntlet covering it and the black clothes that covered him head-to-toe and made him look like the Grim Reaper. That child could look at all the darkness in him, all the damage he’d done (and would do again) and still see a fairy prince. He squeezed her hand protectively, but only for a moment. Even in the midst of something of a heartfelt family reunion, he couldn’t give way to his emotions. Not now, at least. 

❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦

Both siblings knew the house like the back of their hand and perhaps even better. Even the servants and security had a hard time navigating the labyrinthine halls and stairways. For little Jerrie who was just a speck in the grand house with so many places to hide, slipping in and out was fairly easy. Hartley, though bigger than her, had his ways. Many people had said they were both such wonderfully bright children before things changed, but Jerrie could only hope to be half as clever as he was (if anyone could even be). 

They made their way to the other back door, the one in the cramped, cluttered spare room hidden by unused furniture covered in ghostly white sheets and discarded house plants not yet taken out and their withering tendrils. He fiddled with his strange gloves and as if turning a magic key, the locks quietly opened and then the door. 

The night air was chilly for spring, but not uninviting. Jerrie felt like an escaped prisoner taking her first breath of fresh air and feeling the sunlight (or moonlight) on her skin for the first time in what seemed like ages. 

Speak of the devil, armed security guards came charging and hollering at them. 

Hartley shook his head at them and mockingly tsked. “I just knew you’d come back to haunt me.” With one fell swoop, he thrust forth his gloved hands and out came powerful, visible sound waves knocking the men to the ground one by one. 

“This way.” Hartley began to run. Jerrie followed, but looked back as she ran at the foreboding house that never quite felt like home, half-expecting Daddy to storm out and chase after them (there were sounds now, alarms and raised voices which sped up the pace of her heart and legs). 

An oil slick black Sedan Jerrie hadn’t seen before was parked slantwise in between the dead grass and the road near the woods their property. Hartley unlocked it and hurried her into the backseat before scrambling to the driver seat and revving up. Although she was safely buckled up, she felt the need to hold on to the side of the door as the car as it backed up and took off into the night (even their father with all his tendency to road rage the few times he did drive never went so fast) . 

Jerrie said nothing and much to her surprise, neither did her brother as the car slowed down and steadily rolled on. Little droplets of rain began to speckle the window and she sleepily rested her head against it, drawing little shapes and zigzags with her finger on the fog. Before she knew it, she dozed off into sleep. There was no need for dreams; she wasn’t sure she hadn’t already been in one. 

❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦❦

Hartley pulled up into the driveway of his new old house – a fading Victorian still not quite fixed up in the middle of nowhere. The rain poured down heavier the closer he came to it and the sound of the sea nearby roared in unison to make for a strangely soothing symphony. 

He unlocked the doors and stepped out into the storm, taking off his hooded coat (the rest of his costume was thankfully heavy enough to keep him warm, at least just for the short walk into the house). Ever so gently, he opened Jerrie’s door, unbuckled her seat belt, wrapped his baby sister up in his jacket as if it were a blanket, and lifted her into his arms. Naturally, she was taller (though not by much) and heavier than she’d been when he saw her last and that would take his muscles some getting used to, but he considered it a blessing she wasn’t quite too big to carry yet. 

She was his little girl, more than she’d ever been either of their parents, and of all the things they’d given him under the guise of their very conditional love, she was by far the most precious. Her love, on the other hand, never wavered or waned, but only seemed to grow stronger in his absence. Even in her sleep, her pudgy arms were draped around his shoulders so tightly, her knight-in-shining-armor and guardian angel (albeit a fallen one now). 

He unlocked and opened the door with his sonic frequencies so as to not disturb the sleeping child with the jingling of the house-keys and the clicking of the locks so close (she’d always hated those sounds). He took a moment to unwrap her from the soaked jacket-blanket and set her down on the sofa before going back to fetch her backpack from the car. After all was settled, she was back in his arms and up the stairs to the other bedroom in the house he’d kept empty for far, far too long. He smiled to himself, envisioning her delight when she’d have the chance to see how he set it up for her. 

As he laid her down on the bed under the sea-green covers, she began to stir in her sleep. 

“Hartley?” Jerrie murmured sleepily. 

“Yeah?” 

“Are you a dream?” 

“No.” He shook his head, smiling, and proceeding to affectionately tease her by waxing poetic. “I’m as real as the constellations above and the wonders of the deep sea. Now…” He paused to adjust her blankets and make sure she was adequately tucked in for the night. “I want you to go back to sleep. We have a lot of catching up to do in the morning.” 

“Finally,” she whispered, her tired eyes smiling. “We are coming home.” 

“Yes,” Hartley agreed, his voice low and tender. “We are coming home. Goodnight, _ma petite chèrie_.” He beamed and bent down to kiss her on the top of her curly head. Once her eyes were closed and she’d drifted off to sleep, he tiptoed out of her room.

He’d sleep a little easier tonight knowing his house could be something less like a dark hideout and more like a home.


End file.
